Meta Users Will Finally Be Able to Refuse Cross

The EU’s measures to reign in Big Tech’s abuse of user privacy are finally paying off, with Meta agreeing to allow users to refuse cross-site tracking.

Cross-tracking refers to the practice of combining data from multiple services to form a more complete profile of a user. Such user profiling gives advertisers an uncanny insight into an individual’s habits, likes, dislikes, friends, and more.

Spotted by TechCrunch, Germany’s Federal Cartel Office (Bundeskartellamt) has forced Meta’s hand, with the company planning to open an “accounts center.” The accounts center will give users the ability to choose “whether they want to use Meta’s services separately or in combined form.”

The FCO says “using the services in combined form would allow them to use additional functionalities such as crossposting, where a post is simultaneously published across several social media outlets, but Meta would then use the combined data for advertising purposes.”

Meta’s new concession builds on the decisions the FCO began enforcing in 2019.

“In 2019 we broke new ground in the area of competition law with our Facebook decision, which is based on the general prohibition of abusive practices,” said Andreas Mundt, President of the Bundeskartellamt. “We now see that it’s a rocky road to a free and informed user decision on how their data is being processed, but it can be achieved. This development therefore marks an important step in the implementation of our decision, but the process is not yet concluded.”

The announcement is good news for all users concerned with protecting their privacy.